“Sarah Chartier, you are hereby found guilty of all charges and are sentenced to -” Sarah stared at the judge as a man in uniform gestured frantically at the woman, making her speech falter, then the man walked up to her hastily, whispering rapidly in her ear. Standing alone before the crowd of jury members and people who had come to see the court proceedings, Sarah had never felt more insecure as she glanced at her useless lawyer, who shrugged at her. How she had come to be in this room, surrounded by people who probably thought her awful, though she’d only been doing her job, as she’d been paid to do as a professional thief, had likely been a happening that had been assured from the moment she’d been adopted as a kid, not by a law abiding couple in Montreal, Canada as imagined by the government, but by the world’s two best thieves.
Putting it very simply, the Chartiers had not been interested in adopting a kid at all, but in taking on an apprentice. In return for food, shelter and perfectly normal schooling, Sarah would keep her mouth shut as she learned the fine art of stealing. While Sarah’s so-called foster parents had encouraged her to simply pass in school, at home she had learned their art, everything from sleight of hand, to scaling walls silently, stealth and mind games that tested her brain. How to lie without betraying that she was doing so and sneak past security. It wasn’t a harsh child hood at all. In fact, the Chartiers had been kind and when she’d been old enough, she had been glad to help them. They lived well and while she knew it was probably morally bad what they did to survive, it let them have a nice house as well as food, so Sarah had asked no questions of it.
The wars of the rich didn’t really mean anything to the Chartiers anyway. They worked for anyone who would pay and gained a reputation very swiftly as the best in the world’s black market. Sarah had travelled the world, seen every corner and had been looking forwards to a hopefully long, pleasant life of continuing to do so. This particular job would of made her rich, had it not been a set up that had ended with her arrest.
Which was why presently she sat on a very hard wooden seat in Cape Canaveral, Florida, wondering how many years in jail she was going to get and mourning a perfectly good, but now ruined career of crime. Worse, her lawyer hadn’t even particularly tried to help her and sullenly she sat, contemplating the legal fees and wondering doubtfully if there was any way her foster parents could help her. Given their career and how she had utterly blown her cover, she likely wouldn’t hear from them for years. Right now they were likely in hiding, waiting for the legal storm to pass so they could continue working at what they were best at.
Shifting her haunches to get a bit of the ache out of them from sitting so long, she fiercely eyed the man who had been her employer, who was now playing the part of witness against her. The theft of the thoroughbred race horse Domino Effect had been going perfectly until he’d received the horse from her. Then he’d refused to pay her and called the police, at the same time having his rather overly muscled brother hold her down, preventing her from running. Now, a month later, she was still hating him with every nuance of her soul because he had taken her reasonably comfortable life away.
“Ah.” said the judge, drawing everyone’s attention. Sarah glared haughtily at the old curly haired woman, Sarah wishing she could cross her arms, but she was handcuffed too well. The man in the navy blue official uniform beside the judge straightened like a soldier and smiled kindly at Sarah.
“Well then. Sarah Chartier of Canada, I sentence you to paroled service - to the United Nations of Earth!” said the judge, smacking down her mallet with a thudding finality that made Sarah jump, thinking of a guillotine. The man in the uniform beckoned to police officers to unlock Sarah’s cuffs and she was led towards him bewilderedly, wondering why she wasn’t going to prison. The United Nations of Earth, or U.N.E. was the ruling body of Earth, which united all the separate countries. Sarah had never heard a case of any criminal doing service for it as a sentence.
The man beamed at her and stuck out his hand, expecting Sarah to shake it. Nervously she hesitantly put her hand in it, looking over his sharp uniform, which was decorated by medals and military insignia. Everything about him was clean, from his well trimmed grey-flecked light brown beard and hair, to his over shined dress shoes that Sarah mentally swore she could see her reflection in. The man shook her hand firmly and then motioned for her to come with him, police officers following them to a door where he waved for them to leave. The door closed off the courtroom where the judgment had been passed forever and Sarah stared at the ground dreadfully as they walked down a stark white hallway to an elevator.
The man pressed the elevator button with an arrow facing up and smiled at Sarah.
“It’s okay Miss Chartier. Relax; I think you’re going to like what you’ll be doing from now on. I actually sort of envy you! You’re going to be doing something important for us miss, something far better than been paid to steal for different gangs and various snobby rich people.” said the man as the elevator doors slid open. The man waited for her to walk in first and she did, leaning against the wall and watching him tap the button for the highest floor of the court building, then slide a security fob across a red lazar. There was a barely noticeable lurch, then the elevator was carrying them steadily upwards. “By the way Miss Chartier, my name is Captain Jared Tudge. I’m an agent of the U.N.E. Exciting things are in your future miss; very exciting things!”
“What exactly will I be doing, Mr. Tudge?” asked Sarah uncertainly. “Why am I not going to jail?”
“I’ll tell you once we’re on the chopper that’s waiting for us.” said Tudge, smiling almost companionably. “Did you really want to waste your brilliant mind sitting around in jail for ten years for your crimes? You’d be bored stupid. No, that’s a waste of your intelligence.”
Before Sarah could say anything the doors opened and Tudge threw an arm over her shoulders, making her bend double as the loud sound of helicopter blades assailed their ears. They stood on the roof of the building, where a blue helicopter emblazoned with the U.N.E. crest of olive laurels sat like a giant horsefly waiting for them.
“Keep your head down!” yelled Tudge over the heavy noise of the whirling blades overhead. They rushed to the helicopter’s side, throwing open the door and hopping inside, Tudge securing it behind as Sarah sat down in a seat across from it, taking a pair of headphones that a grim looking pilot offered her. Tudge sat down, grabbed his own pair of headphones and buckled up, then almost at once they were lifting off smoothly into the clear sky, soaring over the sun kissed city towards the cool blue ocean.
“Well Miss Chartier, we’re now underway. Not too long from now we will be arriving at our destination, but while we’re flying, I’d like to brief you on what is to happen to you, since escape is now quite impossible. Miss Chartier, have you flown in a helicopter before?” came Tudge’s voice over the radio into Sarah’s ears from the headphones, which cut out the noise of the massive rotor blades so effectively that she could barely hear them.
“Yes, a few times.” said Sarah grudgingly, watching the sunset make the sapphire water glitter orange, a rather tiny shadow of the helicopter racing beneath them.
“Excellent. This will regrettably, probably be your last helicopter ride, so enjoy the view. This is not to say that you are going to be executed or anything ridiculous like that, so please do not jump to such conclusions, but that your service will not be met in a place that has technology such as helicopters. In short Miss Chartier, you are being sent to a place likely very different from everything you are used to or have seen.” said Tudge. “You will be going on a mission of sorts, along with five other young individuals - individuals who have spent their lives in quite legal pursuits mind you - to another world.”
“Uh… another world?” asked Sarah, staring in shock at the beaming man, who sounded almost exactly like a vacation salesman. “What on earth do you mean, ‘another world?’”
“I mean exactly as I said. You will be sent to a planet we at the U.N.E. call P346576. Your duty will be to assist the scientists of the expedition. If and when you return, you will have the freedom to do whatever you wish with the rest of your life, so long as it is law abiding. All criminal records will be wiped clean, so that should be easy with brains like yours. Miss Chartier, it’s no coincidence that you were brought into the hands of the law; when we were given a report of your ah… success… we knew you were the one we wanted for this job, especially as you match the age group that the other explorers belong to. We sent out a warrant and had you captured by an agent of ours in the horse racing industry.”
Sarah clenched the arms of her chair numbly, looking sidelong at the beaming man. Had he been the one? Why would they want an untrustworthy thief on some weird space mission? Sarah had no delusions of grandeur as a thief, but she had never dreamed of travelling the void of space. It had been of no interest to her. Why leave a perfectly decent (if polluted and over populated) world just to maybe die, killed maybe by aliens like in some of the science fiction movies she’d seen? She didn’t fully believe in the existence of such things, but one couldn’t deny that if there were other planets like earth out there in the universe, then surely somewhere there was also other sentient species like humans…
“Why would you want me?” asked Sarah, her voice trembling despite her efforts at not panicking. They were going to force her onto some hyped up space ship with a bunch of scientific lunatics. They were going to make her fly to some far off unknown space rock, probably with no hope of ever returning.
“Hmm… Miss Chartier, how can I properly explain this? Hmmm…” struggled Tudge.
“The scientists are a bunch of over-learned nerds with no experience with actual dangerous situations and thus probably have the same amount of instinct as a snail. Miss Chartier; they’re idiots.” butted in the helicopter pilot bluntly. “The U.N.E. wants you ‘cus they think you might have more sense and since you’re only seventeen you’re probably not completely evil. For some reason they only just now realized their precious little nerds were lacking in actual real life experience.”
“Well, not exactly -” tried Tudge.
“I know you outrank me sir, but I trained that Fletch kid how to use this rig and he damn near crashed it, even with all his bloody studying. He has no sense whatsoever. Some of the girls’ve got real brains, but sure as ‘ell not him. Beg your pardon sir.” said the pilot. “Miss Chartier, I kinda pity you having to deal with them. They dun know the first thing about people skills. Only people they know is each other.”
“Well yes… I suppose that is how it is.” moaned Tudge, shaking his head. He gave Sarah a desperate, almost imploring look. “Miss Chartier, if you do this for us not only will we give you full parole and clean record, we’ll set you up with a proper university education and give you ten million dollars to do whatever you want with. We need you Miss Chartier; the world needs you! This planet can’t take much more of this ecological pressure from our kind. There’s too damn many of us; unless we start moving out to other worlds, then I’m afraid to say human kind is probably doomed. We just can’t seem to stop destroying our own environment. Be part of the cure Chartier!”
“That’s ‘im tryna pep talk yeh.” said the pilot. “He really just wishes he could come with you, instead of waiting for his ticket on the U.N.E. Hope. Captain Tudge’d love to have one of those ‘first man to walk on blank’ slogans next to his name in the history books.”
Sarah shifted in her seat, wondering why they even bothered to ask. Wasn’t she a prisoner after all? They thought she had people skills, but she really didn’t think she did, not the sort they seemed to imply. Growing up learning to be a modern day thief had not allowed for that.
“So, uh, what’s going to happen to me… how long will this, eh, trip be?” she asked nervously, twisting her hands in her lap and playing with her seat belt strap.
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that.” said Tudge. “You’re going to go to sleep and when you wake up, you’ll be there. We’ve perfected a drug that puts the body into a sort of stasis. You won’t age or grow. You’ll just sleep.”
“For twenty-four years.” interceded the pilot.
“Hey you, shuddup Barony.” growled Tudge, tapping the back of the pilot’s seat. He turned and smiled compassionately at Sarah. “It’s nothing to be scared of. I personally tested the drug myself when it first got cleared for human use. You’ll just be a tad groggy when you wake up, then after that you’ll be fine. No side effects.”
Sarah vaguely nodded her head and looked ahead out the window as they approached NASA’s base, pondering if it was all even possible and if after that twenty-four years she would even wake up, or what she would find when she did. Tudge tried to jabber on about the new world, but she wasn’t paying attention, because very strongly she wanted to stay on this old one. Sure things were going down hill, but still, Earth was home and Sarah didn’t believe that there was any other worlds in the universe that could replace it.
Upon landing at the base she was taken to a austere room where there was a view of the distant sea and locked inside. Sarah sat by the window in the lone plastic chair, twisting the old green army beret her foster dad had given her when she was ten in her hands and thinking blearily about her future as the evening meal was brought. Because of her deep anxiety that night it took her a long time to fall asleep, but when she did, she didn’t wake up.
Not for twenty-four years.
*
I walk to school really slow, because it’s raining and I half hope the foreign guy will come and complain that I’ll get influenza or whatever. I managed to wear the one top Attila hates most without him noticing. It’s pink with a heart on it and I bought it with my own money I earned bottle collecting. The first time my dad ever saw me wearing it he attempted to return it, but I cut out the tag in the back and burned the receipt before he could. I know his tricks.
Besides, he didn’t even know what store it came from in the first place.
Nancy’s waiting for me in the foyer and together we walk to our lockers, which are, of course, side by side. I open up my locker and I’m grabbing my binder when I realize that something is there. At the far corner of my locker, hidden under the slant of a dusty textbook which I haven’t opened in who-knows-how-long is a small black wooden box. It looks almost like a ring box. Nancy’s noticed it too and I crouch down, reaching past the old bits of paper to the box, which I pull out.
“What is that?” asks Nancy as I straighten up.
“Whoa.” is all I can say, because it’s the most beautiful little box I’ve ever seen, all dyed ebony with a gold insignia on top that looks like a coiled Chinese style dragon and a little gold clasp holding it tightly shut. The box enough leaves me speechless, but it’s nothing to what’s inside. Ever so carefully I open it, and seated in what I swear is real scarlet silk, is a ring. It’s made of what looks like pure gold and it’s a Chinese dragon chasing its tail in a circle, a hot red ruby clasped in its forepaws.
“Graduation present?” asked Nancy.
“I dunno, I don’t think Attila-the-cheapskate would ever buy me anything like this. I doubt my mom would do it either. It’s really strange.” I say, lifting the ring out of the box for a better look.
“Do you like dragons or something?” asks Nancy. “Maybe you’ve got a secret admirer!”
At this I start to laugh. “Yeah right! Why would anyone -”
I stop because I smell something odd, something wet, like the Fraser river. I look around, but I don’t see anything that the scent could of come from. Weird.
“So do you like dragons?” asks Nancy.
“I dunno, they’re sort of cool I guess. I don’t really have a favourite animal.” I look at the ring again, mildly entranced by it.
“Well you’d better keep it hidden from your dad. If it isn’t from him he’ll skin you.” says Nancy.
“Yeah, I don’t think its from him. He likes ki-rin, remember?”
“Those are those weird little scaly deer things right?” asks Nancy.
“Yeah. They’re supposed to be lucky and good to have around if you’re pregnant or whatever.” I lead the way to bio, the box in my bag. I need to find a way to wear it so that Attila doesn’t find out about it. On the way home, Nancy chips in a few toonies so I can buy a gold plated chain. It isn’t really worthy of the ring, but it’ll do. I string the ring onto it, then wear it under my shirt, next to my heart. It’s just too nice not to wear. The box I’ll have to keep in my locker for now at least.
“Still, it’s kind of creepy that whoever gave that to you knows your locker combination.” says Nancy and I have to agree.
I’m lucky. My father doesn’t notice that anything is off in my behaviour and so he doesn’t ask. Nor does he ask about anything. What he does however is look up from penning a letter, an odd thing for him to be doing considering the fact that he owns a very good computer and he’s quite lazy, then he stares at me all contemplating, as if he’s really thinking about something that concerns me. I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with prom. I want to choose my own grad dress thank-you-very-much. If I let him do it it’ll probably be some stupid getup with a ki-rin on it. I barely even look asian, despite him being pure Chinese and all, so a kimono would be weird, at least in my opinion.
Unfortunately, I’m not lucky in that respect.
Prom, being only in a month, I pounce on my mom before my dad can and ask in a polite as possible fashion if she’d be kind enough to take me shopping.
“Oh, didn’t you know Jane, I already got you your dress.” comments Attila at once.
Oh no. He didn’t! Pleeease don’t make it true!
Apparently this is news to mom as well, because she looks positively horrified. It also quickly becomes apparent that yes, it really is true; on prom night, when every other girl is going to be trotting about in nice modern dresses, I’m going to be stuck in a crimson kimono with gold ki-rin embroidered all over it.
Excuse me, but what happened to the Canadian right of choice?!
I gag when I see the thing, a sound which my delusional sire takes to be a sound of pure delight. Well, I can’t say its awful, but I’d really hoped to wear something that actually matched my personality. Gold ki-rin do not float my boat, thank-you-very-much. Unfortunately, the thing is custom, so there’s absolutely no way I can sneak it off to the store and get rid of it. But beyond that, my father is letting my mom take me out to choose the rest of the ensemble.
Oh, why thank you Attila-the-control-freak. So kind of you to think of my feelings!
Mom, in control of the damage, takes me out immediately. She buys me a nice set of ruby earrings and a pendant, because they match my new dress. I really choose them because they match my new ring. I get nice, perfectly normal high heeled shoes, some insoles for them so they don’t kill my feet on prom day and some perfume that smells like oranges, which Attila is sure to hate. (All the more reason to buy it of course.) Then my mom produces a gold tiara that I didn’t even know she had (maybe it’s from her wedding? I’ve never seen a wedding picture.) This completes how I’ll look at prom - red and gold, with frolicking bloody ki-rin all over me.
Why me?
As we get home, it starts to downpour.
*